In the 2006 Governor's race, Iowa counties that used precinct-based optical scan as the primary voting system had a cumulative undervote for Governor of 0.9%, and counties that used touch screen electronic voting machines as the primary voting system had a cumulative undervote of 2.4%.

This difference is called the “undervote.” The undervote in the election for the highest office on the ballot is used by researchers to evaluate the efficiency of voting equipment. Most voters will cast a vote for the top race, so if the undervote rate for that race tends to be higher with the use of a type of voting equipment, that equipment may not be as usable or effective as others.

“Paper ballots did much better than touch screens” in their undervote rates, said Sean Flaherty, co-chair of Iowans for Voting Integrity. Touch screen voting machines record and tabulate votes in electronic memory, and optical scan voting systems tabulate paper ballots marked by the voters.

The vote trend among Iowa counties was consistent. “Even when we broke it down by smaller counties and larger counties, and by median, paper-ballot counties just tended to do better,” Flaherty said. “This is important, because small diffferences in undervote rates can make a big difference in tight elections. What if we have another very close Presidential election next year?”

Computer scientists have revealed severe security vulnerabilities in current touch screen machines. California's Secretary of State has decided to severely restrict the use of most touch screens following a top-to-bottom review of voting system security. Last year, University of Iowa computer scientist Douglas Jones and two other computer experts wrote of the security of the Diebold touch screen voting machine used in 71 Iowa counties, “we never imagined Diebold to be as irresponsible and incompetent as they have turned out to be.”1

Optically scan systems are superior to touch screens because paper ballots are also inherently voter-verified, while the electronic machine's paper trail may go unchecked by too many voters, Flaherty said. Paper ballots are also not subject to printer jams, and are much easier to count by hand.

Under legislation signed by Governor Culver this year, Iowa joined Florida and Maryland in deciding to move away this year from touch screens and toward a statewide optical scan system. Currently, 16 entire states use only paper ballots in their elections.

“Last year's undervote rate is yet another finding that shows that the Governor and the Assembly were wise to move us toward optical scan,” Flaherty said.